Refrigerant recovery devices are used in the repair of refrigeration equipment to reclaim/recover refrigerant vapor and/or liquid.
Generally, devices utilized to recover refrigerant vapor and/or liquid include compressors having cylinders, compressor heads, pistons and valves. In the past it was common to use a triangular shaped poppet valve as a portion of the compressor head used to recover refrigerant vapor during repair of a refrigeration system. The problem with the use of poppet valves is the exposure of the valve to liquids. A poppet valve exposed to liquid will frequently be pulled into the suction chamber by a piston during the piston down stroke. When the piston proceeds to the upstroke, the piston may crush the poppet valve against the cylinder head destroying the compressor. Alternatively, compressors as known may utilize reed valves. The problem with reed valves is the failure to provide acceptable performance following exposure to liquids which will blow and destroy the reed valve causing compressor failure.
In the past, discriminators have been used to differentiate between liquid and gas refrigerants during the refrigerant recovery process. The known discriminators were generally electronic devices which attempted to separate liquid from vapor by sensing the pressure of the liquid or vapor and then redirecting the liquid or vapor through the use of solenoid valves to open or close ports of the inlet into the compressor. Electronic discriminators are frequently very costly and oversized reducing utility in practical applications. In the past, another method utilized to separate liquid from vapor occurred by employing a cycling solenoid. The compressor was generally protected in this embodiment, however, the flow of liquid and/or vapor through the compressor was not maximized.
Manifolds are normally an integral portion of a compressor utilized to recover refrigerant vapors and/or liquids. The manifolds as known generally utilize extremely complicated circuitry and normally employ the use of three valves. A need exists to reduce the complication of circuitry used within manifolds and to reduce the complexity, number, and to improve the types of valves utilized within a manifold which is a portion of a device used for the recovery of refrigeration vapor and/or liquids from a refrigeration system.